Gossip Columnist Lures Investors Tracking Chavez Cancer
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Investors left in the dark by Hugo Chavez’s battle with cancer are turning to a newspaper gossip columnist for clues about the Venezuelan president’s health and how it will affect his re-election chances.
Nelson Bocaranda, who writes a twice-weekly column in Caracas-based El Universal, revealed last June that Chavez had cancer five days before the self-declared socialist announced doctors in Cuba had removed a tumor from his pelvic area. Bocaranda shocked the nation again on Feb. 20, posting on Twitter that Chavez was secretly in Cuba and needed to undergo further surgery. The unsourced speculation, at first denied by Chavez’s allies, was confirmed by the president a day later.